James Luk
James received his Masters in Chemistry from the University of St Andrews in 2022, working with Prof. Matt Clarke and Dr. Amit Kumar on the role of additives in catalyst performance for plastic depolymerization. He stayed at the University of St Andrews for his PhD with Dr. Kumar, developing homogeneous catalytic methods for PET upcycling, sustainable polymer synthesis, and CO₂ valorization. This work resulted in several first-author publications and presentations at international conferences. He also spent time in Prof. Evgeny Pidko's group at TU Delft studying catalyst degradation in hydrogenative polyester depolymerization, and continued briefly as a Postdoctoral Research Scholar in the Kumar Group before joining the Pincus Lab at George Washington University. His research interests center on enabling a circular economy; turning waste streams such as plastics, CO₂, and now spent solar panels, back into valuable resources.
Catalytic hydrogenation of urea derivatives and polyureas A Kumar, J Luk European Journal of Organic Chemistry 2021 (32), 4546-4550
Manganese-Catalyzed Hydrogenation of Amides and Polyurethanes: Is Catalyst Inhibition an Additional Barrier to the Efficient Hydrogenation of Amides and Their Derivatives? J Luk, CL Oates, JA Fuentes Garcia, ML Clarke, A Kumar, Organometallics 43 (2), 85-93
Exploiting decarbonylation and dehydrogenation of formamides for the synthesis of ureas, polyureas, and poly (urea-urethanes), J Luk, AS Goodfellow, ND More, M Bühl, A Kumar, Chemical Science 15 (40), 16594-16604
Hydrogenation of Carbamates, Ureas, and Polyurethanes Using Heterogeneous Catalysts, B Sole, JS Kolb, R Marcial-Hernandez, J Luk, T Williams, OV Magdysyuk, ...,ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering 13 (41), 17173-17181
From Plastic Waste to Pharmaceutical Precursors: PET Upcycling Through Ruthenium Catalyzed Semi‐Hydrogenation PS Kulyabin, J Luk, EA Uslamin, AA Kolganov, G Saini, ... Angewandte Chemie 138 (5), e21838
Formylation–Decarbonylation Relay Strategy for the Selective Hydrogenation of CO2 to CO J Luk, L Andrew, G Saini, MJ Andrews, E Feeke, AP McKay, DB Cordes, ... ACS Catalysis
Transition Metal Catalysts for Depolymerization, J Luk, A Kumar, Encyclopedia of Inorganic and Bioinorganic Chemistry, 1-25